Functional Form Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Existing work in growth empirics either assumes linearity of the growth function or attempts to capture non-linearities by the addition of a small number of quadratic or multiplicative interaction terms. Under a more generalized failure... more

Existing work in growth empirics either assumes linearity of the growth function or attempts to capture non-linearities by the addition of a small number of quadratic or multiplicative interaction terms. Under a more generalized failure of linearity or if the functional form taken by the non-linearity is not known ex ante, such an approach is inadequate and will lead to biased and inconsistent OLS and instrumental variables estimators. This paper uses non-parametric and semi- parametric methods of estimation to evaluate the relevance of strong non-linearities in commonly used growth data sets. Our tests decisively reject the linearity hypothesis. A preponderance of our tests also rejects the hypothesis that growth is a separable function of its regressors. Absent separability, the approximation error of estimators of the growth function grows in proportion to the number of relevant dimensions, substantially increasing the data requirements necessary to make inferences about the grow...

Downward solar irradiance at the sea surface, measured on several voyages of an icebreaker in the Southern Ocean, is used to infer transmittance of solar radiation by clouds. Together with surface albedo estimated from coincident hourly... more

Downward solar irradiance at the sea surface, measured on several voyages of an icebreaker in the Southern Ocean, is used to infer transmittance of solar radiation by clouds. Together with surface albedo estimated from coincident hourly sea ice reports, instantaneous cloud radiative forcing and effective cloud optical depth are obtained. Values of “raw cloud transmittance” (trc), the ratio of downward irradiance under cloud to downward irradiance measured under clear sky, vary from 0.1 to 1.0. Over sea ice, few values of trc were observed between 0.8 and 1.0, possibly due to the threshold nature of the aerosol-to-cloud-droplet transition. This sparsely populated region of transmittances is referred to as the Köhler gap.The instantaneous downward shortwave cloud radiative forcing is computed, as well as the time-averaged net forcing. The net forcing at a solar zenith angle of 60° is typically -250 W m-2 over open ocean, but only half this value over sea ice because of the higher surface albedo and less frequent occurrence of clouds.“Effective” optical depths τ (for a radiatively equivalent horizontally homogeneous cloud) are classified by season and surface type. The frequency distributions of τ are well fitted by decaying exponentials, giving a characteristic optical depth of 15 at 47°S, increasing to 24 in the region of maximum cloud cover at 58°S, and decreasing to 11 at 67°S near the coast of Antarctica.

The present study utilized a latent variable modeling approach to examine the Simple View of Reading in a sample of students from 3rd, 7th, and 10th grades (N = 215, 188, and 180, respectively). Latent interaction modeling and other... more

The present study utilized a latent variable modeling approach to examine the Simple View of Reading in a sample of students from 3rd, 7th, and 10th grades (N = 215, 188, and 180, respectively). Latent interaction modeling and other latent variable models were employed to investigate (a) the functional form of the relationship between decoding and linguistic comprehension in third grade, (b) the contribution of these predictors as children progress through school, and (c) the contribution of passage fluency, working memory, and performance IQ to a model of reading for all grades. Results did not support the Simple View of Reading for students in grades 3, 7 and 10. Additionally, it was found that passage fluency significantly predicted reading comprehension after controlling for decoding and linguistic comprehension for students in grades 7 and 10. Likewise performance IQ was found to be a significant predictor of reading comprehension for students in third grade.

With increasing liquidity of the Indian sovereign debt market since 1997, it has become possible to estimate the term structure in India. However, the market is characterised by several frictions that cause individual securities to be... more

With increasing liquidity of the Indian sovereign debt market since 1997, it has become possible to estimate the term structure in India. However, the market is characterised by several frictions that cause individual securities to be priced differently from the 'average' pricing in the ...

This paper presents a modified k-nearest neighbor approach for streamflow generation. In this model, first, a local polynomial (a nonparametricfunction) is fitted to estimate the mean of the conditional probability density function. The... more

This paper presents a modified k-nearest neighbor approach for streamflow generation. In this model, first, a local polynomial (a nonparametricfunction) is fitted to estimate the mean of the conditional probability density function. The simulation at any time point ‘t+1’ given the value at the current time ‘t’ then involves two steps (i) obtaining the conditional mean from the local

A scaling analysis based on the field equations for two phases and the jump conditions at the interface is carried out to deduce a balance of forces acting on a Taylor drop rising through stagnant liquid in a vertical pipe. The force... more

A scaling analysis based on the field equations for two phases and the jump conditions at the interface is carried out to deduce a balance of forces acting on a Taylor drop rising through stagnant liquid in a vertical pipe. The force balance is utilized to deduce a functional form of an empirical correlation of terminal velocity of the Taylor

Cure models can be used to simultaneously estimate the proportion of cancer patients who are eventually cured of their disease and the survival of those who remain "uncured". One limitation of parametric cure models is that the... more

Cure models can be used to simultaneously estimate the proportion of cancer patients who are eventually cured of their disease and the survival of those who remain "uncured". One limitation of parametric cure models is that the functional form of the survival of the "uncured" has to be specified. It can sometimes be hard to fit survival functions flexible enough

There is sufficient microeconomic evidence that holidays are important to economic life. Is there similar support at the macroeconomic level? This exploratory paper uses a simple approach to assess the impacts of holidays on the economic... more

There is sufficient microeconomic evidence that holidays are important to economic life. Is there similar support at the macroeconomic level? This exploratory paper uses a simple approach to assess the impacts of holidays on the economic growth rates of 182 nations in 2002. It finds that the human development level has a larger effect on economic growth rate than holidays. At the aggregate level holidays affect economic growth positively, but in a statistically insignificant way. For example, increasing by one day the number of holidays per year adds 0.30% to annual growth rate. Unlike non-religious holidays, religious holidays, whether Christian or non-Christian, affect economic growth negatively. The results are meaningful, yet statistically weak insofar as their explanatory power is only around 20%. They suggest that instruments for holidays, such as total sales revenue during holidays ,or something, other than the number of holidays, may be better explanatory variables. One can ...

Page 1. Are School Uniforms a Good Fit? Results From the ECLS-K and the NELS Ryan Yeung Syracuse University, New York ... Paliokas and Rist (1996) suggested that other factors associated with the treatment may explain the stark results... more

Page 1. Are School Uniforms a Good Fit? Results From the ECLS-K and the NELS Ryan Yeung Syracuse University, New York ... Paliokas and Rist (1996) suggested that other factors associated with the treatment may explain the stark results seen in Long Beach. ...

A quadratic Box-Cox methodology is presented for choice of flexible functional form that includes consistent computation of variance estimates. Empirical viability of the procedure is investigated by specifying a dual profit function... more

A quadratic Box-Cox methodology is presented for choice of flexible functional form that includes consistent computation of variance estimates. Empirical viability of the procedure is investigated by specifying a dual profit function using highly aggregated U.S. agricultural data. Conditional and unconditional variance estimates for the parameters are compared and contrasted. Like-lihood ratio tests are utilized to discriminate among the generalized Leontief, normalized quadratic, translog, and square-rooted quadratic functional forms. Statistical results indicate that the squarerooted quadratic is the preferred choice of functional form for these data, followed by the normalized quadratic.

To obtain the probability distribution of 2D crack patterns in mesoscopic regions of a disordered solid, the formalism of Paper I requires that a functional form associating the crack patterns (or states) to their formation energy be... more

To obtain the probability distribution of 2D crack patterns in mesoscopic regions of a disordered solid, the formalism of Paper I requires that a functional form associating the crack patterns (or states) to their formation energy be developed. The crack states are here defined by an order parameter field representing both the presence and orientation of cracks at each site on a discrete square network. The associated Hamiltonian represents the total work required to lead an uncracked mesovolume into that state as averaged over the initial quenched disorder. The effect of cracks is to create mesovolumes having internal heterogeneity in their elastic moduli. To model the Hamiltonian, the effective elastic moduli corresponding to a given crack distribution are determined that includes crack-to-crack interactions. The interaction terms are entirely responsible for the localization transition analyzed in Paper III. The crack-opening energies are related to these effective moduli via Griffith's criterion as established in Paper I.

This paper extends the Integrated Conditional Moment (ICM) test for the functional form of nonlinear regression models to tests for para- metric conditional distributions. This test is formed on the basis of the integrated squared... more

This paper extends the Integrated Conditional Moment (ICM) test for the functional form of nonlinear regression models to tests for para- metric conditional distributions. This test is formed on the basis of the integrated squared difference between the empirical characteristic function of the actual data and the characteristic function implied by the model. This test is consistent, and has nontrivial

A hybrid Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes/Large-Eddy Simulation (RANS/LES) methodology has received considerable attention in recent years, especially in its application to wall-bounded flows at high-Reynolds numbers. In the conventional... more

A hybrid Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes/Large-Eddy Simulation (RANS/LES) methodology has received considerable attention in recent years, especially in its application to wall-bounded flows at high-Reynolds numbers. In the conventional zonal hybrid approach, eddy-viscosity-type RANS and subgrid scale models are applied in the RANS and LES zones, respectively. In contrast, the non-zonal hybrid approach uses only a generalized turbulence model, which provides a unified simulation approach that spans the continuous spectrum of modeling/simulation schemes from RANS to LES. A particular realization of the non-zonal approach, known as partially resolved numerical simulation (PRNS), uses a generalized turbulence model obtained from a rescaling of a conventional RANS model through the introduction of a resolution control function F R , where F R is used to characterize the degree of modeling required to represent the unresolved scales of turbulent motion. A new generalized functional form ...

The use of growth factor models for trip distribution has given way in the past to the use of more complex synthetic models. Nevertheless growth factor models are still used, for example in modelling external trips, in small area studies,... more

The use of growth factor models for trip distribution has given way in the past to the use of more complex synthetic models. Nevertheless growth factor models are still used, for example in modelling external trips, in small area studies, in input-output analysis, and in category analysis. In this article a particular growth factor model, the Furness, is examined. Its application and functional form are described together with the method of iteration used in its operation. The “expected information” statistic is described and interpreted and it is shown that the Furness model predicts a trip distribution which, when compared with observed trips, has the minimum expected information subject to origin and destination constraints. An equivalent entropy maximising derivation is described and the two methods compared to show how the Furness iteration can be used in gravity models with specified deterrence functions. A trip distribution model explicitly incorporating information from observed trips, is then derived. It is suggested that if consistency is to be maintained between iteration, calibration, and the derivation of gravity models, then expected information should be used as the calibration statistic to measure goodness of fit. The importance of consistency in this respect is often overlooked. Lastly, the limitations of the models are discussed and it is suggested that it may be better to use the Furness iteration rather than any other, since it is more fully understood. In particular its ease of calculation makes it suitable for use in small models computed by hand.